What Happened To The Adam Tab From NotionInk

The computing world is set abuzz by developments all the time. With CES, which has drawn to a conclusion just now, there were even more on the circuit than the usual. With the crowding of the market especially of the tablet market what with everyone major from Samsung, Microsoft, Apple, HP announcing tablets like clockwork and other alternate companies coming out with their own exciting alternative tablets, the market is extremely dynamic and changes colors within the blink of an eye.

NotionInk was another player on this front which made a few definite noises at the beginning of 2012. But then on the company has been really quiet. We had been on its track for a long time mainly for the reason that it looked something new and fresh in the staid world of tablets. However even we lost track of it considering the media recluse that the company has today become. It came out with its flagship tab, the Adam tab, but that was that. Since then NotionInk gradually started withdrawing into a shell. Users who got the first order on the Adam tab described it as a great work but were later disappointed with nothing coming out of the company and no updates for its user environment.

Suddenly a few days back one of my colleagues went off as where in the world is NotionInk these days. That brought me back to where it was. In the long lull it had subsided into, I too had given up on it as another one of those cases of a company that promises great things, brings out its first product launch amidst much fanfare and then gradually subsides. So I thought lets get on the case and with the acumen of a crime investigator I got into the act. This is what I found out.

Once I got back on the trail of what NotionInk has been up to, it was really an uphill task to find anything at all. The company and its product information have literally left all traces of life on all media pages, social connect platforms and even its own corporate website. I had almost given up with a exasperated feel of this company is a goner syndrome. Then I did a reconnect session on it and to my surprise, it is still there. The company is there and so are its products. To start off lets go through what exactly was the Adam Tab.

What Speak: First on MachineHappy find out what the Notion Ink Adam was all about and why did it make quite a noise in the tablets segment.

The Notion Ink Adam was a tablet that was an attempt at giving everything different and unique to the tablet at the time. A point on point overview of what was on the Adam Tab:

The NotionInk Adam tab was aimed to be faster than the tablets of the time with its Nvidia Dual Core 250 processor. The catchline for its processor capability from NotionInk stood something like, eight independent processors in addition to the two A9 cores, processors to accelerate audio and video, a GE force GPU.

Transflective Screen: The NotionInk Adam features a crossover screen including a backlit LCD for vivid color display and a trasflective screen not much unlike the YotaPhone that premiered at CES 2013. The screen implies highly clear and comfortable reading experience under bright sunlight as well as vivid working on colors experience too.

185 Degree Swivel Camera: The camera on the Adam tab was one of the most outstanding ever on a tablet. The 185 degree swivel camera was a 3.2MP facing camera that could be swiveled around at different degrees for optimal use.

Universal Connectivity: NotionInk had taken the concept of universal connectivity very seriously with the Adam tab considering the tablet can support almost all kinds of add on attachments like most external memory attachments, 3G HSPA, onboard GPS, sim card slot amongst others.

In a keynote the Adam tab was full of promise. In its launch it did fulfill its specification promises but then failed to support them which is the utmost demand of any user and that’s where it went into oblivion.

What Happened To NotionInk Adam?

NotionInk had it all. A great product in the offing. Vital initial traction in the market considering the great features it had mixed and matched in its Adam. It launched as planned and then on no one knew what happened to it. In the past few days when I was trying to find out what happened to NotionInk, where it was and what about its products, I finally realised that the company and its products are very much there. The only thing missing were the vibes about it. A conscious decision or an unconscious one was the question there. In trying to answer this, I rifed through all media archives at my disposal and all hints and clues from social networking forums like Twitter. The answer I arrived at when I could finally connected everything was that NotionInk had crawled into an oblivion that it chose of its own. It changed its media strategy and decided to involve only professionals in its product development efforts. It sank into a shell in its Bangalore, India based office and worked on with the next generation of its products. From its media excerpts the following are clear:

Its last twitter release stated a see you in the new year monologue. This was before christmas 2012.

People were cribbing publicly on its twitter handle. The reply was a stoic silence.

The home page of the company too reports a coming soon message and a link back to the old page.

Put two and two together and the conclusion that is evident is NotionInk has been working hard, ramping up its efforts. It probably considers too much hype a negation on the product (maybe because of the last launch debacle) and that’s why its kept off media. But believe me folks if everything its been up to is any indication, expect the announcement of an Adam II very soon, maybe by the third week of January and expect this announcement to beyond what is expected.

MachineHappy Cut:

NotionInk has undoubtedly been planning something really big in its flagship Adam tab lineup. Even I do agree too much of media interaction sometimes dilutes up the product development cycle, still at least an interaction with the users who wait on it with bated breath should be a priority because lets face it, the products are for users. I don’t even know if the guys at NotionInk would be following this but for their benefit a bit of an eye opener or teaser for the public won’t go in the red for the company and the product.

For more on NotionInk and the Adam II that is in the offing keep checking here.